The NBA will announce Friday it will postpone the start of training camp and the opening slate of exhibition games after a negotiating session Thursday in New York between players union executive director Billy Hunter and commissioner David Stern ended without a labor agreement or progress toward one soon, league sources said.

Stern, according to one source, told Hunter in Thursday's meeting the owners want to reduce the players' cut of basketball-related revenue to a figure well below 50 percent. Under the previous agreement, which expired July 1, the players were guaranteed a minimum of 57 percent of basketball-related revenue would be spent on salaries.
In negotiations, the players' union had offered to reduce its percentage to as much as 54 percent to accommodate the owners' contention they lost $300 million last season, with the stipulation that a mechanism would be instituted to reward the players if future revenue increased.

The league offered players a 46 percent of basketball-related revenue, 11 percent less than they received in last deal and seven percent less than last proposal by players, a league source said. Owners agreed to try to come up with a mechanism to solve their issues without adding a hard salary cap before the next meeting, according to the source.

The next negotiating session has not been scheduled, but the two sides agreed to contact each other with possible dates to reconvene next week, sources said. Whenever a deal is struck, it is expected to take at least two weeks to write out the complete terms and hash out the finer points.

A period for free agency and then a training camp, however truncated, also would be necessary before the regular season could begin. Most experts agree a minimum of four weeks is necessary to get it done, making the last week in September the absolute deadline for a deal to be struck before regular season games would have to be postponed or canceled.

Stern acknowledged Thursday that "the calendar is not our friend" when it comes to keeping the NBA season intact.

The league is at about the same point as when it postponed training camps in 1998, the only time it lost games to a work stoppage. The decision then came on Sept. 24 for camps that were set to begin Oct. 5. This year, players would be expected to report Oct. 3.

The regular season is scheduled to open Nov. 1, with the defending champion Dallas Mavericks hosting the Chicago Bulls. Though both sides have repeatedly said there is still time for a deal that would leave the regular season unaffected, neither would say so Thursday -- with union president Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers using virtually the same words as Stern about the coming weeks.

"I don't have control of that part of it, that would be more of a commissioner Stern, Adam Silver question in terms of logistics of starting the season on time," Fisher said. "I'm not going to try and make a guess on that one. The calendar's obviously not our friend, but we're not going to give up on the process because of the time."

Asked again if he thought things were far enough along to still believe in a Nov. 1 start, Stern said: "I don't have any response to that. I just don't. I don't know the answer."

Stern celebrated his 69th birthday Thursday but didn't appear in a festive mood after meeting for about five hours with leaders from the union. He was joined by Silver, the deputy commissioner, Spurs owner Peter Holt, who heads the labor relations committee, and NBA senior vice president and deputy general counsel Dan Rube. Fisher, Hunter, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy represented the union.

Those small groups had good talks in recent weeks, but things went poorly last Tuesday when they were rejoined by their full committees. Hunter said after that meeting that players planned to make a "significant" financial concession, only to find that owners refused to agree to their condition of leaving the current salary cap system as is.

Fisher said he didn't believe Thursday's talks moved the situation beyond where it was last week.

Stern said the owners' labor relations committee would talk Friday, and both sides said they hoped to meet again next week.

"We'll keep working at it until we figure this thing out, but right now there isn't anything to really report or say," Fisher said. "I don't have any answers to any questions, other than we'll keep working until we find some solutions."

It seems like missing some games is inevitable.
Start of the season will be delayed.
Now I just hope we will have a season.

All Net

09-23-2011 03:22 AM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

Knew this was coming...:(

We will have a season but when is the question.

Clutch

09-23-2011 03:48 AM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

Quote:

Originally Posted by All Net

Knew this was coming...:(

We will have a season but when is the question.

Who knows ?

Almost 3 months have passed since the lockout took place and there isn't any progress.
3 ****ing months for nothing.
If they keep that pace whole season might be cancelled.

If the deal is not struck by early-mid January the whole season is in jeopardy.

This happened last time:

Quote:

On December 23, Stern announced that he would recommend canceling the season if there was no deal by January 7, 1999

RoseCity07

09-23-2011 03:56 AM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

They are just going through the motions. There will be no season. Everything is playing out just like everyone said it would.

Faberg

09-23-2011 04:36 AM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

I rather no season at all than a sloppy, half-assed rushed 50 game season. :confusedshrug:

Clutch

09-23-2011 04:43 AM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faberg

I rather no season at all than a sloppy, half-assed rushed 50 game season. :confusedshrug:

No way.
50 games + playoffs >>>>> no games at all

alenleomessi

09-23-2011 06:36 AM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

it would be bad for 29 teams in the nba, i mean one and a half year for blake in the gym ?!?!? :eek:

asdf1990

09-23-2011 07:59 AM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

11 percent cut , there goes the season.

bagelred

09-23-2011 08:39 AM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

Quote:

Originally Posted by asdf1990

11 percent cut , there goes the season.

Let's have a math lesson everyone.

A drop from 57% of revenue to 46% of revenue seems like an 11% paycut for the players (57 - 46 = 11%). Actually, it's not. It's a lot more.

Let's say there's only one person in the league. League revenue is $10 million. Under the current CBA, that player would get $5.7 million (57%). Under the new CBA, the player would make only $4.6 million (46%)

But $4.6 million is only 81% of $5.7 million ($4.6/$5.7 = .81). Or since the player is making $1.1 million less, we can say it's a 19% paycut ($1.1/$5.7 = .19)

So basically, the owners want the players to take a 19% paycut in salaries.

Yeah, math!!! :banana:

kkling

09-23-2011 09:08 AM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

This blows. At least we have NFL

JohnnySic

09-23-2011 09:21 AM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

Casual fans wont even notice while the NFL season is gowing.

Once January rolls around you'll hear some grumbling. It'll be funny watching these schmucks scramble to get their shiit together at the last minute, and seeing which players are woefully out of shape and unprepared.

Once January rolls around you'll hear some grumbling. It'll be funny watching these schmucks scramble to get their shiit together at the last minute, [b]and seeing which players are woefully out of shape and unprepared.[/b

At least my Celts should be able to grab some good free agents...

Glen Davis is on your team.

BlackWhiteGreen

09-23-2011 12:09 PM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

Quote:

Originally Posted by LosBulls

Glen Davis is on your team.

:no: Free Agent, son.

swi7ch

09-23-2011 12:30 PM

Re: BREAKING NEWS: NBA training camp to be postponed

It's only breaking news if people weren't expecting it.

I think people are getting false optimism because the NFL had a "lockout" and it was resolved quickly and so they're thinking this NBA lockout wouldn't be that different.